Collin Gosselin thanked the special adults in his life who helped him reach his latest milestone, but his mom, Kate Gosselin, didn’t get a shout-out.
The 19-year-old commemorated his recent high school graduation on Thursday, June 22, in a lengthy Instagram post that included a nod to his dad, Jon Gosselin, and his sister Hannah. “I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of making a graduation post, as most students graduate, therefore making it not such a big deal. So I decided to anchor this post more towards gratitude for mentors, friends and of course family.”
Collin thanked Jon, 46, for teaching him about “resilience” and for “always supporting my decisions and having my back when I bite off more than I can chew.” He also thanked Jon’s ex-girlfriend Colleen Conrad, whom he described as a “motivator for being successful in this world,” adding, “When you think of someone you want by your side, you think of Colleen.”
Us Weekly confirmed in August 2021 that the Jon and Colleen called it quits after seven years of dating. Colleen has seemingly stayed in the kids’ lives, however, attending Collin’s graduation.
Notably absent from Collin’s post was Kate, 48. The teenager has previously described his childhood relationship with his mom as “worse than what you would say the average teenage kid goes through” with a parent. “My mom had her own agenda, and I don’t know exactly what that was,” he told Entertainment Tonight in November 2021. “But I was put in a tough spot and my agenda was to make it out on top of that tough spot.”
Collin’s parents, who tied the knot in 1999, rose to fame as stars of the reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8. The former couple share twins Cara and Mady, 22, and sextuplets Collin, Hannah, Joel, Aaden, Leah and Alexis, 19.
Jon and Kate called it quits in 2009 after Jon allegedly cheated on his then-wife, and Kate was awarded full custody of their children. (Jon later denied the allegations in a 2019 interview with Dr. Oz.) In 2016, Kate placed Collin in the Fairmont Behavioral Health Institute after she claimed he required assistance for his “special needs.”
The following year, Collin reached out to his father and went to live with him instead. By 2018, both Collin and Hannah were living with Jon. Collin later said that his time in the institution contributed to his estrangement from Kate.
“After being there, I didn’t have a relationship with her,” he told ET. “Even before then, I don’t think we had much of a relationship and I think that just kept tearing it even more down so.”
Collin went on to say that he thinks his family’s time as reality television stars caused tension when the cameras weren’t rolling. “I want to believe it was because of TV and what being in the public eye does to a family. I think it tore us apart,” he explained. “It gave us less time to actually be together as a family [and] more time to be in the public eye.”
After Collin’s tell-all interview, an insider exclusively told Us that Jon is still holding out hope that Collin and Hannah will eventually reconcile with their mother. “Jon wishes Collin and Hannah could fix their relationship with Kate,” the source said in November 2022. “That’s all he’s ever wanted.”
